Is Kewanee’s business ‘freeze’ beginning to ‘thaw?’

Earlier this month my eye caught three ribbon cuttings on the front page of the Star Courier one day.

None of them were big businesses, but solid and at least a sign that some had enough faith in the local economy to put themselves out there. The ironic thing about this so-called recession has been that no one wants to spend money because of the poor economy, but the economy won’t improve until people start spending money.

That seems to be slowly changing in Kewanee.

As Mark Mikenas of the Chamber of Commerce puts it, we’re moving to a more service-oriented market in Kewanee.

The world has changed and the days of J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, Sears, and other major chains having stores in towns the size of Kewanee are long gone. How many times have I heard that Kewanee once had eight — count ‘em, eight — stores downtown where women could buy a dress. Of course, the population of Kewanee was somewhat larger then, but with the advent of shopping malls in Moline, Peoria and Galesburg in the 1970s, the retail business moved away.

For a decade or so, it was devastating to Kewanee. In the early 70s, I and other staffers from WKEI took a walking survey of downtown Kewanee and, at the time, counted (if I remember correctly) at least 20 vacant stores.

First came the W.T. Grant department store in Midland Plaza west of Bracken’s, Kewanee’s first shopping center at Tenney and South streets.

Downtown Kewanee merchants fought like crazy to keep business there and saw the development of the south side of town as much a threat as the malls 40 miles away.

Then came Wal-Mart. Back then, the rumors that preceded the arrival of one of their stores in your town often did more damage than after it actually opened.

Wal-Mart changed the shopping dynamic in Kewanee and could probably be credited with leading to the closure of a few stores. It also, once and for all, spelled the end of downtown Kewanee as a retail shopping hub and moved Kewanee “downtown” to a four-lane highway leading south along which development has grown ever since.

I’ve gotten into some dandy arguments when I ask the hypothetical question: “What would Kewanee be like today if Wal-Mart had never come?” It is obviously not the cozy shopping environment of the old downtown, but if you go back to the 70s and remember how shoppers were leaving Kewanee in droves to spend their money elsewhere, at least Wal-Mart has kept shoppers here and still brings them in from the surrounding area, just as they came here years ago.

Sure, people still make trips to Peoria, the Quad Cities and Galesburg, but not nearly as often. The price of gas, of course, has also had something to do with that, but Kewanee is a much bigger retail center today because of Wal-Mart, Menard’s, Farm King, Good’s Furniture, Sullivan’s Foods, Breedlove’s and others, and a wide variety of eating and drinking establishments that bring them here.

Page 2 of 3 - So did downtown Kewanee dry up and blow away? Certainly not. It’s changed — adapted, if you will. That was most recently demonstrated by the open house Saturday at Top Tier Fitness Center. Depending on which generation you’re from, it’s in the former Term City or Spurgeon’s building in the 100 block of West Second Street, in the heart of downtown Kewanee. From all reports, it’s a state-of-the-art facility and getting quite a bit of both buzz and business.

A dining district has also developed downtown, as demonstrated by Opie’s Bar & Grill, one of the three front-page ribbon cuttings mentioned earlier. It is at Tremont and Second streets, the epicenter of what has now been dubbed “historic downtown Kewanee” in some ads.

Within a block or two you find The Pioneer Club, Cerno’s Bar & Grill, The Station House, El Cazador, and PL Damron’s. Nearby are Uncle Joe’s and a new place — Friends Cafe, just east of Main on Third Street, which is getting positive reviews. That’s eight restaurants — many, as Mark Mikenas points out, offering a wide variety of food and atmosphere. The response from the public has also been positive with parking at a premium most evenings and especially on weekends.

Kewanee’s just-beginning business growth is popping up in different locations, not just the downtown, as shown by the other two ribbon cuttings — Blondie’s Bar, in the former Moose Lodge on North Main Street, which features pool tables and leagues, and Family Used Furniture at 204 W. Second St., in the Odd Fellows building, which bills itself as “a giant inside yard sale.”

A major new business in town is Hibbett Sports which recently opened in the strip mall at Tenney and South streets. Across the way, Paula’s Design Team recently moved into one of the vacancies in what used to be called Bracken’s Shopping Center, now Midland Plaza. Bishop’s Spa & Nails has moved from Fifth Street to the former Gazebo downtown and Motor City Used Cars has filled the lot at the corner of Tenney and Garfield streets.

Kewanee Guns & Ammo also recently opened at the corner of Third and Lexington, also showing how everything doesn’t have to be in a four-square block area any more.

Mikenas also reported that Bob Kuntz has set up his Steaks ‘n More stand in the lot of the former car wash on North Main Street which at least means spring can’t be that far away.

Page 3 of 3 - They say everything old is new again, and let’s hope that is true about Kewanee. Commerce is an evolving process. “Now we use smartphones and IPads and shop online and the business community has changed, as well,” said Mikenas.

Hopefully, the spring thaw will continue to “loosen up” the local economy and lead to even more ribbon cuttings and people willing to move forward rather than worry and wait.